


Shifting Shadows

by returntosaturn



Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: Drabbles, F/M, Tumblr Prompts, Vignettes, non linear, or none at all - Freeform, prompt fills, prompts, various pairings - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 12:02:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14164410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/returntosaturn/pseuds/returntosaturn
Summary: “Sometimes people don’t realize they’re unhappy until… Well, I guess sometimes it takes awhile for us to know what we want.”// a collection of prompts fills from Tumblr. Various pairings, probably.





	Shifting Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fill: "If you make one more stupid pun, I'm literally going to stab you."

It was always interesting, and sometimes a little uneasy, to watch Shaun interact with patients. While his bedside manner was unpredictable, it was almost always gentle. Their first patient of the day was a teenage girl named Laura who’d elected to undergo the installation of a cochlear implant before she started high school in the coming fall. She was great at lip reading, and while they could dialogue easily with her, she had a quiet nature that Shaun had particularly taken to.

It would’ve been easy to infer that he saw in her a reflection of himself, but Claire knew better. No two people were the same, and no two disabilities the same. It wasn’t that he saw them as equals. He caught on easily to her even-tempered personality that left little to question.

It was a simple enough surgery, one easily explained and with little risk involved. If everything went according to plan, the patient would be released only a few hours after surgery.

Even so, it didn’t stop the other members of their team from inserting their opinion. 

“I think it’s great. It’ll make acclimating to high school easier for her. Give people less of a reason to ostracise her,” Morgan said while they prepped for surgery.

“It’ll make class easier, maybe, but I don’t think it’ll keep people from the knowledge that she’s deaf,” Claire added.

“People shouldn’t be ashamed of their disability,” Shaun said evenly. 

“You think she’s ashamed of being deaf?” Jared asked.

“I’m not her. How should I know how she feels?” Shaun shrugged. “They shouldn’t be ashamed, but sometimes people make them feel as if they should be.”

“If there was a device that could be implanted into your brain to help you interpret sarcasm, for instance, you wouldn’t take a chance at it, even if there was a chance it might not work?” Morgan asked. “What would be the harm? If it didn’t work, you’d be no worse off that you were before.”

“Yes I would. What would be the point of keeping the device in my brain if it didn’t work? In any case, there’s no such device, nor would it be possible to create one, so your question is pointless. I don’t want to change myself to make it easier to get along with me.”

“Wow. Finally something we see eye to eye on.” Morgan said with a grin.

-

“Please, I’m begging you.”

“I can’t help it. It’s ear-resistible.”

Claire groaned, watching closely while Murphy finished the incision.

“I’ll stop,” Jared agreed. “This is serious stuff. Hearing is ear-replaceable.”

“That’s not funny,” Morgan sneered from Shaun’s opposite side. 

“We’re ready to drill the channel,” Shaun announced, nodding to the blonde—who was none too happy that Melendez had left Shaun to act as lead...again. 

The high whine of the drill was almost welcome, filling the room, diffusing the tension, and aligning their focus back on the patient at hand as Morgan smoothed out a shallow cavity where the implant would rest against the skull.

“That looks...very nice.” Shaun nodded, the corners of his eyes crinkling above his mask, but Morgan seemed unaffected by the compliment.

“Insert the template.”

Claire reached over while Murphy held back the skin, and settled the implant template snuggly inside, an exact fit.

“Perfect,” she said, easing it back out, flicking her eyes to Morgan as she did, catching nothing but focus.

“Chill out, Reznick. They’re trying to be since-ear,” Jared spoke up again.

“If you make one more stupid pun, I will literally stab you,” Claire warned, looking over at him.

“That would be very...irresponsible,” Shaun measured monotonously with a little nod, and the three other surgeons all blinked at each other, trying to silently decipher if it’d been innocent or intentional. 

Jared snorted behind his mask.

Claire gave a secret smirk, careful not to let it reach her eyes. 

-

Once their patient was awake and put through Murphy’s meticulously thorough discharge exam, checked for any signs of dizziness, nausea, or vertigo, she was released. 

Her implant wasn’t functioning as it should yet, but after healing and with therapy and practice, she’d get there.

“That was nice when you complimented Morgan in the OR,” she told Shaun later in the doctor’s lounge while they gathered their things to leave.

“Yes,” he answered simply, and Claire smirked into her locker, thinking that the end to his response.

“Kenny took my television.”

“What? Like he stole it…?”

Shaun shifted his weight and closed his locker with the faintest of clicks. “I brought over a pizza. He had friends over playing poker, and he told me he borrowed my television so that they could watch basketball.”

“I’m guessing he didn’t ask first.”

Shaun ducked away slightly. “No he didn’t ask. He  _ did _ steal it.” He nodded affirmatively. “But I haven’t asked for it back yet.”

“You should, Shaun. That wasn’t right of him to break into your place and take your things. I know how much that television meant to you…”

“Why should I do a mean thing to him just because he did a mean thing to me? That isn’t fair, or productive.”

Claire sighed. “That’s why you complimented Morgan today.”

Shaun looked away, his typical trace of a smile twitching just a little. 

“But Shaun, learning how to deal with a difficult coworker is different than standing up for yourself. You know that. I’ve seen you do it. You should ask for it back. There’s nothing mean about that. It might be uncomfortable to stand up to people we think are our friends, but friends don’t do stuff like that, either.”

He seemed to consider this, quietly, and went about packing his backpack without further comment.

She zipped up her overnight bag and gathered her purse, ready to say her goodbyes and head to her car. But Shaun stopped her short.

“Is that how you feel about Jared?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“You said it's hard to stand up to people we think are our friends. Are you still friends with Jared even though you broke up? He was annoying you during surgery today. Do you not want to have an uncomfortable conversation with him because you still think he’s your friend?”

“That’s a little different, Shaun…”

Shaun shifted and threaded his fingers together. “He broke up with you. He did something mean to you, but you keep letting him irritate you instead of ignoring him.”

She gave an uneasy smile. She didn’t want to discuss this in the middle of the doctor’s lounge. She didn’t want to discuss this period. She looked up to Shaun, quiet and patient as always.

“We’re on the same team. We have to work together. I can’t ignore him.”

“But you aren’t friends?”

“No, I wouldn’t say we are,” she said sharply, shrugging her bag higher on her shoulder.

“But when you were friends, you let him hurt you then too.”

“That’s because I think somehow…” She sighed, trying to decide the best way to say it. As it turned out, the easiest way, where Shaun was concerned, was always the simplest. “I think I kind of wanted him to do that.”

“If you weren’t happy, why didn’t you stand up for yourself?”

“Sometimes people don’t realize they’re unhappy until… Well, I guess sometimes it takes awhile for us to know what we want.”

“I think you deserve to be happy.”

“Thanks, Shaun,” she breathed, letting her shoulders droop. She wasn’t. She didn’t feel that way. Not with how things had ended, even if she’d wanted them to. Not with the lingering effects of the mistake she’d made all those months ago when she’d drilled the perfect burr hole in the dark, under the dance of ambulance flashers. Not with the convict she’d found and harbored so much faith in, only to watch him take his own life. Not with her mother showing up at random, embarrassing her among her colleagues, and pulling the same stunts she always had. She could put up with it; she could be resilient, but if she was honest—really honest with herself—that resilience was growing thin.

She looked up to see Shaun, smiling in that simple, easy way.

“I’m tired,” she said, swallowing down the double edge the phrase carried with it. “I’m gonna go home. See you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, Claire,” he said, all too cheerily for the hour.

“Goodnight.”

She slipped out of the room, feeling somehow heavy and lighter at the same time. 

The familiar path to her car gave her time to hide her thoughts away again, but as it always was with Shaun, she couldn’t get his words out of her head.

At some point during the day, she’d gotten a voicemail from her mom. Now in the privacy of her car, she let it play. Her mother’s voice piped through her car’s stereo, somehow strange and off when it filled the cabin, letting her know that they’d have to cancel their plans for lunch on Saturday.

She stopped it prematurely, driving the rest of the way home in the quiet. 

In the morning, she decided, she’d ask about Shaun’s plans. It was rare to have a Saturday outside of the hospital. This one wouldn’t go to waste. Few things in life were certain, and things rarely happened according to plan, even in the sterile sanctum of operating rooms, but there was someone there who’d been with her through it all, quiet and steadfast, and she’d never once seen him turn down an invitation to pancakes.

**Author's Note:**

> [allscissorsallpaper](http://allscissorsallpaper.tumblr.com) on Tumblr.


End file.
